Ron Sossi

L.A. Weekly Theater Awards 2013: The Nominees

See past recipients: *2012 *2011 (winners) *2011 (nominees) *2010 (winners) *2010 (nominees) *2009 (winners) *2009 (nominees) *2008 (winners) *2008 (nominees) Start looking for your postapocalyptic-chic attire. The 34th annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards, celebrating the best work on our smaller sta ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Family Strife and Sexual Taboos in Machu Picchu, Texas

Family trauma drama Machu Picchu, Texas (pictured above) grabs our Pick of the Week this week. Good reviews also for Noel Coward's Fallen Angels at the Pasadena Playhouse and David Henry Hwang's Chinglish at South Coast Rep. For all New Theater Reviews, and this weekend's comprehensive listing ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Jane Kaczmarek in The Snake Can

Kathryn Graf's new comedy about women slipping into middle-age, The Snake Can, is this week's pick of the week. Also a nod for Cathy Rigby reprising her decades-long performance in Peter Pan. See below for all the latest New Theater Reviews, and this week's comprehensive stage listings. Also, two s ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground

Nods this week for Laguna Playhouse's production of Neil Simon's Chapter Two and Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground at Zombie Joe's Underground in North Hollywood. For the latest new reviews and comprehensive stage listings, see below. Tanna Frederick and Robert Standley star in N. Richard Nash's T ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Solo Show About Pioneering Actress Hattie McDaniel

Our critic Lovell Estell was entranced by Vickilyn Reynolds' performance in a show based on the life of Hattie McDaniel, Hattie -- What I Need You To Know. For all the latest New Theater Reviews, and comprehensive stage listings, see below.This week's Stage Feature takes a look a three shows th ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Sherlock's Last Case

No new reviews this week, but these will return at the same time next week, as the new theater season gets underway. See below for complete listings of shows to see this week.In this week's stage feature, we asked our stable of critics what they most dread and anticipate when being assigned a s ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Japanese War Brides Musical Tea, With Music

A musical about World War II war brides, Tea, With Music, for which the author, Velina Hasu Houston, has added songs and music for this production, is our Pick of the Week. For all new theater reviews, see below. This week's stage fature looks a couple of plays aiming to be light fare: Micha ... More >>

Theatre in the Dark

Theatre in the Dark Is Exactly That. Dark. Blackness. No Lights. Got It?

It's the kind of what-if that gives lighting designers the night sweats: What if the artistic director at one of L.A.'s premiere stages got it into his head to produce theater without any lights at all? What would that experience be like? Would audiences respond? Would they even notice? Such questi ... More >>

Pick of the Week: Way to Heaven (Himmelweg)

Way to Heaven

Stage Raw: Juno and the Paycock

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSStage FEATURE on God of Carnage and The Merchant of Venice​Photo by Ron Sossi Writes Paul Birchall of Sean O'Casey's play at the Odyssey, "This staging of O'Casey's play artfully mixes blarney and despair in almost equal measure." Mayank Keshaviah e ... More >>

Stage Raw: Theatrification and Broadway 100

COMPREHENSVIE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Tim Crouch's The Author, and the Belarus Free Theatre L.A. WEEKLY THEATER AWARDS NOMINEESTHEATRIFICATION AND BROADWAY 100 ​Broadway and the Vaudeville circuit began in Los Angeles 100 years ago, in the downtown Historical Theater Di ... More >>

Stage Raw: Camino Real

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE ON THE BREAK OF NOON, AND CRACK WHORE GALORE -- LIVE!NEW PARTNERS ​CalArts teams up with the Theater @ Boston Court to present CAMINO REAL  (reviewed here on Tuesday) at the Pasadena theater. Photo by Ed Krieger. Another new pa ... More >>

Stage Raw: Furious Theatre Company and Pasadena Playhouse part ways

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE ON SPIDER-MAN, ON BROADWAYFURIOUS AND PASADENA PLAYHOUSE PART WAYSFor reasons having to do with Pasadena Playhouse's needs to lease its second space, The Carrie Hamilton Theater, and the need of Furious Theatre Company for a space with h ... More >>

Adding Machine: A Musical

PaDraic Duffy's Puzzler and Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith's Adding Machine: A Musical

The sum of life's parts

Stage Raw: Summer Festivities

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on [title of show] and Dani GirlSUMMER FESTIVITIES Open Fist Theater Company launches its annual Fist Look Festival this weekend, with The Existents, a rock musical by Douglas Crawford and Jason Wooten, music and lyrics by Ty Taylor. T ... More >>

Stage Raw: Bedroom Farce

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE ON LINDA PURL'S FESTIVALNEW REVIEW GO  BEDROOM FARCE ​Photo by Ron Sossi The title is apt, since the action occurs in three radically different bedrooms in a 1975 English suburb. Kate (blond and taffy-voiced Kate Hollinshead) an ... More >>

Blowback: Shaheed and The Arsonists

Car bombs, arson and the history of empire

Stage Raw: 7 Local Theaters in Danger of Eviction

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT STAGE FEATURE ON THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD and THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO7 LOCAL THEATERS IN DANGER OF EVICTIONAn internal memo to the Los Angeles City Council dated April 16, and co-signed by Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry F. Miller and C ... More >>

Theater Reviews: The Mystery Plays, The Arsonists, There Is Truth, Love Is Real

Also, Richard & Felix: Twilight in Venice, The Drawer Boy and more

Stage Raw: Spirits of Michael Jackson and Jerzy Grotowski

THE LATEST NEW THEATER REVIEWS ARE EMBEDDED IN THIS WEEK'S COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSCheck back here Monday afternoon for NEW THEATER REVIEWS of Shakespeare Unscripted at Impro Theatre; Insanity at NoHo Arts Center; Farragut North at the Geffen Playhouse; The Voisey Inheritance at Theatre 40; Te ... More >>

Stage Raw: Coming Home

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSFor the latest NEW THEATER REVIEWS and an update from the Grotowski Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, press the Continue Reading tab at the bottom of this section. NEW REVIEW THEATER PICK COMING HOME Photo by Ed KriegerA sequel to his 1995 post apartheid play Valley Song, ... More >>

Stage Raw: Angels in Poland

The latest NEW THEATER REVIEWS are embedded in this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS; Also, see this week's  THEATER FEATURE on Oleanna at the TaperANGELS IN POLANDMadonna and child in Wroclaw, Poland, where L.A.'s theater directors are making a strong showing as "core participan ... More >>

Stage Raw: Lie With Me on KPFK

TIME IS RUNNING OUT, SEATING IS LIMITED:  PURCHASE TICKETS TO THE 30TH ANNUAL L.A. WEEKLY THEATER AWARDS ON MARCH 30TH; NOMINEES, RSVP AT (310) 574-7208, IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY DONE SO. DRESS FOR A 1958 LOUNGE ACT.At your fingertips: This week's THEATER FEATURE on Jon Stewart, Jim Cramer an ... More >>

Taking Steps

A Man's a Man

Theater Reviews: Lions, Spring Awakening, A Man's A Man

Also, Gem of the Ocean, Mary's Wedding and more

Local Theater Leader Suffers Major Heart Attack

Ron Sossi, artistic director of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, suffered a major heart attack on Monday, May 26, while attending a movie. He was rushed to Cedars Sinai Hospital in West Hollywood, and underwent triple bypass surgery two days later on Wednesday, May 28.

The 29th Annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards

Rock & rollin' at Hollywood's Avalon

Theater Murder Mystery

After portraying Bobby Seale, actor Darius Ever Truly dies in a baffling street attack

Actor Slaying Rattles Local Theater Company

Darius Ever Truly, who played Bobby Seale in Odyssey Theatre Ensemble's stage production of The Chicago Conspiracy Trial, was fatally stabbed last Saturday morning after a Halloween party. Police have been frustrated by uncooperative witnesses. On Friday night, October 26, following the performan ... More >>

The Chicago Conspiracy Trial: Boomer Town

Taking L.A. back to the Summer of Love

Theater Reviews: Lost Angeles, Point Break, This Lime Tree Bower

Also this week's pick, The Wreck of the Unfathomable

Theater Reviews: Mark on Society, American Midget and More

Also The Mikado Project, The Cover of Life and others

Moment After Moment After Moment, an Era Fades

Scott Kelman, 1936–2007

L.A. Theater 2006: The Thinning Gray Line

Past: Is theater facing an audience die-off?

The L.A. Times’ Drama-Critic Drama

Pledges of Allegiance

When loyalties fall off the deep end

Treasure Hunt

Unearthing L.A.’s culture gems

Destiny Manifesto

L.A. theater lurches into the future

Bad Heart, Plenty of Guts

Ron Sossi, and his enduring Odyssey

Letters

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Immovable objects, irresistible forces

Heil! Heil! The Gang’s All Here

Theater’s hate crimes of the heart

Enter Smiling

Facing my second millennium of theater

Dream Weaver

Director Ron Sossi on Kenneth Cavander's compendium of ancient Greek plays

Theater at the Edge of the World

A brand-new festival, and what went before it

The Art of Artifice

Plays about the birds, the trees and men in drag